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A-move by Design *NEW* tldr version (5K) - Page 2

Blogs > Falling
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Prev 1 2 3 4 Next All
Gonzo103
Profile Joined July 2011
Germany220 Posts
October 23 2012 11:42 GMT
#21
Great blog! Blogs like that let me wish i would had played starcraft BW! SC2 is allready a complicate game with unbeliveble depht! But BW - boy oh boy!
Alpino
Profile Joined June 2011
Brazil4390 Posts
October 23 2012 13:12 GMT
#22
On October 23 2012 12:37 Falling wrote:
Unfortunately lengthy posts are my bane I suspect a lot of my normal posting is about as long as some people's blogs.

It certainly makes it a much greater task to read. But I don't like leaving loose ends that will quickly turn into useless side arguments when I can cover all my bases at the beginning.

But I definitely agree that brevity would be helpful.


I like to say that if you wanna say big things you need big explanations that leave no holes, that's exactly why and how science works, a good way of doing things if you ask me.
20/11/2015 - never forget EE's Ember
Grend
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
1600 Posts
October 23 2012 13:34 GMT
#23
Chinese triangle part was really cool, never seen that before
♞ Against the Wind - Bob Seger ♞
bonifaceviii
Profile Joined May 2010
Canada2890 Posts
October 23 2012 13:37 GMT
#24
The best micro thread since Oh Micro Where Art Thou. Excellent work.
Stay a while and listen || http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=354018
Kittan
Profile Joined April 2012
Poland3999 Posts
October 23 2012 13:37 GMT
#25
Very good post, perhaps could use slightly more organisation but solid analysis overall. If I may nitpick a little bit, I believe glitching through minerals/stacked temples etc is not random as such, seeing as progamers (and pro mapmakers) used it as a feature very consistently. I mean Outsider and Monty Hall were just made on that. It's just we are not quite able to pull it off every time.

On October 23 2012 14:19 mmp wrote:
Correction: Scarab behavior is not random.

I'm glad somebody actually knows about that thread, I was hugely impressed when I first read it.

BW is a more than a game, it's a science <3
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=81288 <--- How I fell in love with a man, a team, a game and a website in a single day... | "There are no false gods, there is only the Emperor, and Choi Yun Sung is his prophet." -> Zona 40k
don_kyuhote
Profile Blog Joined December 2009
3007 Posts
October 23 2012 14:05 GMT
#26
On October 23 2012 22:37 Kittan wrote:
BW is a more than a game, it's a science <3

This reminds me that BW even had a college course about it in UC Berkeley. Just another point in the long list of its legacies.
For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
meep
Profile Blog Joined August 2009
United States1699 Posts
October 23 2012 14:26 GMT
#27
On October 23 2012 22:37 bonifaceviii wrote:
The best micro thread since Oh Micro Where Art Thou. Excellent work.


For anyone curious, here's the link to that one, an excellent read as well as this one.
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=121769
閑静 しずか (ノ・_・)ノ
sorrowptoss
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
Canada1431 Posts
October 23 2012 14:40 GMT
#28
It's really great how the OP references all kinds of posts from all corners of TL. Extremely insightful, deep and intricate analysis.
Sometimes I wish Blizzard would just remake BW with better graphics. But then again we would get tired of always playing the same thing for over 14 years... or would we?
Snorkels
Profile Joined May 2011
United States1015 Posts
October 23 2012 14:54 GMT
#29
I was worried about this until
Find one where I've cared about balance beyond it being a passing nuisance that will inevitably be patched. (I doubt you can even find that.)
then I started to sit back and enjoy it.

Just a thought: a table of contents might be good and make it easier to digest. Background; strengths of micro (subcategories?); unit design in BW/WoL (I suck at names ); The Inevitable Protest/Counter-Argument [AKA the game is emergent! Yeah, this part was very cool]; categorizing micro; conclusions.

Great blog, and grats on 5000.
sluggaslamoo
Profile Blog Joined November 2009
Australia4494 Posts
October 23 2012 15:36 GMT
#30
Some really interesting thoughts. Gave it a 5.
Come play Android Netrunner - http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=409008
Alpino
Profile Joined June 2011
Brazil4390 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-10-23 15:44:15
October 23 2012 15:43 GMT
#31
On October 23 2012 23:40 sorrowptoss wrote:
It's really great how the OP references all kinds of posts from all corners of TL. Extremely insightful, deep and intricate analysis.
Sometimes I wish Blizzard would just remake BW with better graphics. But then again we would get tired of always playing the same thing for over 14 years... or would we?


Are people tired of chess yet?

+ Show Spoiler +
not comparing chess and bw as games, comparing chess and bw awesomeness
20/11/2015 - never forget EE's Ember
hoby2000
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
United States918 Posts
October 23 2012 16:30 GMT
#32
You do a really good job at analyzing this shit. I come up with the same conclusions, but I only use personal experience so I never have diagrams or images representing what I mean.

Something to really note here is that Capcom took what were bugs in their game, and turned them into features for their sequels. You've already given numerous other examples of this, but the biggest thing to me is that Blizzard said "Oh, technology is different so we can't do it like that now."

That's bullshit. Technology may be different, but that doesn't mean you can't keep those things in there. It's not that it can't be done, it's that Blizzard was too lazy to do it and decided they knew better. It's obvious too when they created SC2 multiplayer with "esports in mind." You didn't create BW with Esports in mind, so why try to d the same with SC2?

A lesson without pain is meaningless for nothing can be gained without giving something in return.
JieXian
Profile Blog Joined August 2008
Malaysia4677 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-10-23 17:15:08
October 23 2012 17:02 GMT
#33
Nice analysis, but I think you've missed out a lot of other stuff eg marine vs lurker???, muta harass, goons/dt vs mines etc.

I suggest adding this video with subs that I made some time ago into the OP, just in case people are interested:

Please send me a PM of any song you like that I most probably never heard of! I am looking for people to chat about writing and producing music | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noD-bsOcxuU |
Waxangel
Profile Blog Joined September 2002
United States33713 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-10-23 17:20:47
October 23 2012 17:19 GMT
#34
there's plenty of interesting micro to be done in SC2

I still think most of the 'problems' are rooted in the resource system/map design that incentivizes 3 base turtling and fighting with gigantic high tech armies. You could add all the small scale tricks you want but they wouldn't be as relevant as in BW just because the scale of the game switches to multi base, huge army so much quicker in SC2.
AdministratorHey HP can you redo everything youve ever done because i have a small complaint?
Falling
Profile Blog Joined June 2009
Canada11607 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-10-23 17:28:00
October 23 2012 17:20 GMT
#35
On October 23 2012 17:42 MasterCynical wrote:
I love reading your blogs. I hope you make more in the future.

I think the most important quote that i've ever heard form a game developer is "players will always take the path of least resistance"

Probably the most insightful quote ive heard from Dustin Browder is "[deathball] is the easiest way to play"

This applies to all games, even all sports potentially. Why would you micro when you're better off a-moving and focus more on macro?
This is because the gain from microing sc2 units are extremely small compared to microing BW or WC3 units.

I think that was more or less what I was trying to get at with my just a-move tanks example. If the incentive isn't great enough, there might be a more technically complicated way of attacking, but players will take the path of least resistance.

On October 23 2012 17:42 MasterCynical wrote:
I don't really think that units like the Colossus aren't micro-ed intensively because they lack micro friendly mechanics such as these.
Show nested quote +
Beyond adding spells to every single unit, the simplest method making armies generally and the Colossus specifically less a-move-y is to focus on
1) burst damage
2) speed between difference between attacking and moving again or moving and then attacking.
3) speed in general
4) low hit points (depending on rate of fire)

Units like the Colossus just don't have any incentive to be microed like others. A BW example would be the Dragoon. It really didn't have any micro friendly mechanics yet you still had to perfectly micro them against spider mines and tanks otherwise they would just get 1shot.

Dragoons actually do have the burst damage. They have their front loaded damage and (relatively) lengthy time between shots and it has a fast enough attack in between moving so that it is microable. The shot isn't as fast as vulture patrol micro, but it's fast enough for hold position micro. But again, we don't need every unit to have vulture like micro.

And the rest of your post I more or less agree with. But the first 2 points (burst- front loaded damge with decent cooldown/ and speed difference between attack and move) is exactly why the collosus doesn't have the incentive to be microed. (It certainly isn't top speed because the collosus is relatively fast.) The path of least resistance is to back it up slowly or spread out a bit to mitigate damage.

@Snorkels
Table of contents would be cool, but I don't know how to do internal links within a post.

@Wax
And that is why I think it is a multi-causal problem and linked Barrin's thread at the beginning. But even if you fixed how fast resources come in and how fast armies can be accumulated, you are still left with a large number of units that are generally best used to reposition, spread and back up. But don't have that dominating attack-retreat micro as found in BW. All the small delays whether by unit design or Battlenet latency slows down how fast a unit can be attack retreated.

Not to say there isn't cool micro in SC2. I agree there is. I usually go out of my way to note this. But there can and should be more. Much more.
ModeratorWake me up when Trump's term is finished. Slava Ukraini.
OpticalShot
Profile Blog Joined October 2009
Canada6330 Posts
October 23 2012 18:11 GMT
#36
Another good read, and grats on 5k!

Lately there seems to be a lot of these analytical posts regarding SC2 on TL. It's good to see that a lot of intelligent users genuinely care about the game.
[TLMS] REBOOT
Flonomenalz
Profile Joined May 2011
Nigeria3519 Posts
October 23 2012 18:13 GMT
#37
I think SC2 would have a lot more micro if things didn't die so freaking quickly and do so much damage.

I love crazymoving
vOdToasT
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
Sweden2870 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-10-23 18:35:16
October 23 2012 18:34 GMT
#38
Some more anecdotal evidence for the crossover of interest between fighting game players and real time strategy game players:

I started out playing RTS games, and then got in to fighting games.
My girlfriend started out playing fighting games, and then got in to RTS games. (not through me, but before I met her)
If it's stupid but it works, then it's not stupid* (*Or: You are stupid for losing to it, and gotta git gud)
stenole
Profile Blog Joined April 2004
Norway870 Posts
October 23 2012 18:49 GMT
#39
I think every non-Brood War player should read this and look at the videos as it illustrates something that brood war players will try to convey every now and then, but often without success. It can be so hard to explain, just like you illustrated with your muta video. The mutas in SC2 seem a little drunk in comparison to their Brood War counterparts if you attempt the same moves.
zlefin
Profile Blog Joined October 2012
United States7689 Posts
October 23 2012 19:31 GMT
#40
this si quite helpful in understanding the goals. incorporating certain elements found in fighting games does sound like a good idea; and it relates to high speed micro.
making sure each individual unit has things you can manually do to improve it, and making sure that each one is interesting.
Thanks OP, this is quite illuminating.
Great read: http://shorensteincenter.org/news-coverage-2016-general-election/ great book on democracy: http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10671.html zlefin is grumpier due to long term illness. Ignoring some users.
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